Inside gaming development. Mascot Gaming Technical Director interview

Mascot Gaming is bringing 10 brand new games to iGB Live! 2019 – 9 video slots and one table game. The new set will be of favour to players of different tastes – there are both classical slots and something not met before, like Purple Pills (a funny game, peculiar homage to D12’s old rap song) or Hell’sing in gothic setting.

In connection with this huge release, we decided to talk to our Chief Technical Director Dmitriy M.

Hi, Dmitriy! The game release which you are going to present at iGB Live! 2019 is impressing. Please tell me how do you choose topics for your games?

The themes of games are based on our personal feeling of what is interesting and what can really excite players. For example, people are always interested in the great historical facts like Ancient Egypt, Venice Carnival, Voodoo, Ancient China, Chinese Empire and Ancient Rome Empire. Besides, the main characters of our games are popular myths creatures like mermaids, vampires or zombies.

We’re always looking into the market trends and checking new games coming from industry leaders. If a new hit appears, we do not see anything reprehensible in creating a resembling game. It’s important not to fall beyond the competitors. Besides, we’re paying special attention to local preferences of players in different parts of the world. What seems attractive for a player from one country might not satisfy players from the other one.

Where does your experience come from?

We’ve been working in the industry for more than 9 years already. Straight from the very beginning we were focused not only on our domestic market, but preferred to work globally. We are very well acquainted with market proposal in different countries of the world. We know the products of the market leaders and know the outsiders. We know what players like. We even operated our own online casino!

Do you still operate it?

Actually already not. We’ve chosen B2B direction and nowadays divert all our resources to the development of high-quality product without wasting time on anything else. But our B2C experience is something that helps us improve the B2B product, make it more user-oriented as after all everything we do – we do for end users.

Do you gamble yourselves?

I’d better say we “play” rather than “gamble”. We all love games and regularly play both our own games and the games of other providers during competitive analysis. But being a casino platform provider, we possess a more technical approach to games, we evaluate them from a professional point of view, not player’s. We’re not aiming at winning money, but we have the goal to understand a game, feel its gamepay. And of course, we always play only for money, because in free rounds it’s hard to understand anything.

What kind of promo mechanisms are implemented in your games?

Free rounds as it’s the main trend in in-game promo nowadays. This is something that gamblers like and expect. Here we’ve chosen the strategy to do like flagships do – to meet customer expectations.

Can I as an operator use my own bonus system in your games?

Our casino gaming platform is developing along with new games on the market. If an operator can’t find what he wants in the in-box solution during integration, we’ll do our best to solve all the expectations beyond the standard package.

Do you provide soft for land-based casinos as well?

Industry trends led to very close interaction between online and offline gambling. Online technologies are used everywhere – starting from the land-based casino management up to the gaming part itself. Our solutions are for all kinds of operations.

What is required to start business with you?

The main thing is the desire to work with a trustworthy partner and be a trustful partner yourself.

You say you use mathematical modeling in game development. Can you tell more about it?

Having spent many years in game development, we’ve come to a conclusion that classic, canonical attitude to game logic modeling is the most honest, reliable and – what’s interesting – the simplest way. We’re not reinventing the wheel in our online casino software platforms, but you should understand that such approach to development is, as a rule, the most science-intensive. It requires significant experience and in-depth knowledge of the topic.

How do you test your products?

We have a Quality Assurance department which consists of true professionals who know games even better than we do ;) Not only our games, but also the games of our competitors and flagships of the market. Apart from technical tests, they often advise us on behalf of players.

Are there many people in your team in general?

The size of the team doesn’t matter much. What’s much more important is that employees should be real professionals, know the industry, understand for whom they do their work and understand the requirements and principles of iGaming products. The size of the team should allow finishing work on time and ensure its highest quality. Of course, one day you feel you should hire more as clients have more tasks, players want more games etc. So growth of the team is inevitable.

What about music in your games? Where do you take it from?

Oh, music is our particular pride! Music in all our games is made by professional sound designers. They implement their own methods, involving focus groups to find the best sounding matches etc. One day we should make a separate material about it ;)

What’s your approach to graphics?

In graphics we follow the principle of simplicity. A game should attract and be of favourable look, but at the same time its design shouldn’t overburden a player. Complex elements or animation are not needed here. When players spin fast, they shouldn’t be distracted by anything. And if we slow down the gameplay for the sake of beautiful graphics, it will lead to no good. 

What about the legal part of the business? What kind of licenses do you possess?

Along with development of our games, platform and software we always take time on licensing and certification of our products. Almost always it comes from requirements of our clients and their licenses. In this sphere all the certificates and licenses are tightly connected. Their presence increases players confidence in the game and trust towards operator. You can’t run normal business without it. 

That’s true. Thanks for an interesting talk, Dmitriy! And good luck on iGB Live! 2019 :)

Cheers!